


That's What She'll Call It

by RobberBaroness



Category: Carrie (1976)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Horror, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Necromancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:01:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28572681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/pseuds/RobberBaroness
Summary: Nobody would believe what she'd done.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24
Collections: Holiday Horror 2020





	That's What She'll Call It

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Missy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/gifts).



“I can’t tell her. I can’t tell her, ever.” Carrie had taken a shower at Sue’s house, and been given a sundress and a denim jacket, but the smell of blood lingered nonetheless. It might not have been her, though- it might have been Tommy. She had wanted to ask Sue if there was any perfume she could use ( _ Here's the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand! _ Carrie thought, remembering English class) but that would have made her mother even angrier.

“You don’t have to tell her,” said Tommy. “Just tell her about the prank, but say that the bucket missed me.”

“It was a miracle!” Sue insisted. “Won’t your mother be proud of you for that?”

Carrie shook her head and hunched over her bowl of cereal. Sue’s parents had been baffled when she not only returned from prom early but brought another girl and her date with her, but she’d said something about Chris throwing the pig's blood at Carrie and they’d allowed the kids their privacy rather than ask any more uncomfortable questions.

“There’s no law in the bible against doing what I could do, and she called me a witch anyway. There are laws against-” she took a breath and avoided everyone’s eyes- “against what I just did.”

“So she doesn’t need to know!” said Sue. “If she wants to be a- I’m sorry, I shouldn’t talk about anyone’s mother like that.”

Tommy touched the spot on his head where he’d been struck by the bucket. It hurt, but it hadn’t been what had killed him. That had been his neck snapping back. It didn’t look like that had happened, just that there was a big bruise on his forehead. Nobody knew it had been worse except for him, Carrie and now Sue.

“Necromancy,” Carrie said, the word sounding odd in her slow, quiet voice. “That’s what she’ll call it if she guesses.”

That wasn’t the only reason she didn’t want to talk to or even look at her mother. A second reason was the change of clothes- was she ever going to convince her that she hadn’t taken off her prom dress to go to bed with Tommy? Another was the idea of telling her mother that she’d been half right; some of the school had laughed at her, but some of them had screamed when the blood came pouring down. A few girls towards the front had gotten some of it splashed on their pretty tulle dresses, and were probably going to kill Chris if she ever dared to show her face again.

And none of them even understood what had happened when Carrie had gotten down on her knees and put her hand on Tommy’s head. Carrie hadn’t even thought about it at the time, just done it on instinct. It was all as simple as lifting a fork off a table.

She wasn’t even sure if Tommy and Sue believed her. They said they did, but how could they know? Sue wasn’t even in the room when it happened, and Tommy...Tommy said that he didn’t remember anything after seeing the bucket come down.

“She won’t think I’m a saint,” Carrie said. “Saint Carietta. I wish she’d think like that, but she won’t. Eve was weak, and she didn’t even eat from the tree of life. I guess I did.”

Sue put her hand on top of Carrie’s. It was nice to feel the warmth of another body while her skin was still wet and cold from the shower. Carrie hadn’t tried to hold Tommy’s hand since they’d come home from the prom, for fear it would be stiff and cold.

“You both think I’m crazy,” she said. “Don’t you?”

Sue and Tommy both rushed to talk at the same time, both saying something along the lines of  _ ‘No, of course not!’ _ They didn’t really mean it, she was sure. If they had believed her, they would have been much more scared than they seemed now. Or maybe they didn’t think she was crazy, they just thought she was wrong. Carrie wished she could believe she had been wrong, that Tommy hadn’t had anything worse than a concussion when he was hit. She couldn’t explain it. She couldn’t make them see. She couldn’t describe the way she had lifted him up when he faded, lifted him up from hell or dragged him down from heaven, taken his lost life in her hands and forced it to rise up again.

“We’ll go with you,” said Tommy. “We’ll go into the house with you, and we’ll all tell her what happened. Not everything, but enough so that you don’t get in trouble. We’ll stay there as long as you want, and if she tries to hurt you we’ll go for the police.”

Witch. Necromancer. Devil’s child. Carrie could already hear her mother screaming in her ears. Well, if she hadn’t been a witch before, she guessed she was now. Maybe her mother would like to be slammed back against the wall and frozen if she ever tried to hurt her again. Maybe Carrie would be brave enough to do that, and maybe she wouldn’t. Maybe she just wouldn’t ever go home.

“I like your cereal,” she said to Sue, just for something to say. Tommy squeezed her shoulder, and it didn’t feel cold or stiff at all.


End file.
